Formed more than 2200 years ago, the route was served as a connection between
people and cultures, stimulating the mobility of dialogue, art, religion,
ideas and
technology. With its significant diversity of cultural heritage and its treasure of
natural tourism attractions covering across 12,000 kilometers of ancient trade
network, the Silk Road tourist destinations today offers travelers the opportunity to
experience a exotic adventures, following the paths of Alexander the Great and Marco
Polo and other world renowned surveyors. It is noticeable that, in 1993, Uzbekistan
joined the World Tourism Organization (WTO). Subsequently in 1994, the WTO
meeting held in Samarkand and ―Samarkand declaration‖ was adopted on tourism in
1999. ―Khiva declaration‖ which proposed by honoured international organizations,
such as UNESCO, UNWTO , Council of Europe and others, calls upon the countries
of Central Asia to preserve their cultural and natural heritage. Ongoing establishments
stress the benefits of sustainable tourism and outlines specific steps to stimulate
cultural and ecological tourism to Silk Road destinations.
Additional issues include an invitation to local and international stakeholders to
invest in Silk Road tourism and the endorsement of country‘s
offer to host a Silk
Road Support Office in Samarkand that began operations office of the World Tourism
Organization to promote tourism along the Silk Road in 2004 (―Declarations |
UNWTO Silk Road Programme ‖ 2014) .
Current programs and investigations by The World Tourism Organizations and
other World Heritage Institutions like UNESCO, ICOMOS and UCL have been
addressing to maintain the quality and shape of the whole destination through some
suggestions for the sides and routes as a part of the transitional Silk Roads World
Heritage. The role of this project has involved unprecedented
collaboration among
member of the destination. The main target of the program is dedicated on specific
Silk Road Heritage Corridors crossing Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan and China and
another one between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with some proposals (―UNWTO Silk
Road Programme ‖ 2013). In the Central Asian tourism destination, rate and quantity
of tourism investigation for the development countries are increasing respectively.
The government of Uzbekistan pays great attention for the development of the tourist
industry: the development of services is defined as one of the top priorities of socio-
economic development of the country. However in 2010 the number of tourists was
975000, very international tourism arrival tendency of Uzbekistan illustrates overall
upward trend since 2000 up today. ased on tourism ―National Company‖
data a
quantity of tourists in Uzbekistan were 1,977,600 in 2013. In order to make
enhancement of tourism industry, administrative offices of this sector have been
conducting lots of job to retrieve and make developments. On this basis, in the short
period modified totally, signed agreements with different governments and
institutions.
From a list of the contracts, it is visible that talks with Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Turkey to Uzbekistan , which considered
collaborating in number of aspects of integration in tourism between Uzbekistan and
Turkey.
During the meeting, the Turkish side suggested opening direct flights between
Turkey and the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, along with existing
routes pointed
to the need to increase the frequency of Uzbekistan Airways Tashkent-Istanbul flight
to intensify tourist exchange. Both delegates noted that 75 million people in the past
year departed from Turkey to different destinations of the world. According to the fact
that both of Uzbek and Turk nations have a same historical roots, culture and
inseparable traditions and Silk Road projects, alliance between these states and
service providers have some interests on Uzbekistan tourism potential. Furthermore, it
is estimated that, even 1% of them was directed to Uzbekistan, this would highly rise
tourist circulation between Uzbekistan and Turkey (―UzReport.uz ‖ 2014). The rate
of arrivals is obviously revealed upward trends; mainly in the case of Kazakhstan and
other unlisted countries of origin from all over the world have expected great deal of
tourists in the near future expectation. Furthermore,
the number of tourists from
Japan, Turkey and Russia have picked up gradually during this period and relatively
expected to sharp steadily in the future.
As well as, by 2020 it is predicted that China, Russia, India and the Middle
East‘s trends will increase more than 200 million tourists annually visiting (Handbook
on E-marketing for Tourism Destinations, 2008). Therefore, as one of the main Silk
Road tourism destinations, Central Asian countries could
appeal a great deal of
visitors from all over the world. As Edgar Knobloch (2013) mentioned, Central Asian
countries have great resources and potential for development of tourism, however
countries need integration and modernization to become competitive in tourism
businesses.
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